"All because two people fell in love"

The title of today's post is a line from a country song. Yes, it's a little cornball (such is country music's 'charm'), but bears its own truth.

You see, in 1963, on the 17th of September, in a small church in Limmerick, Ireland, two young people pledged their lifelong commitment to one another in front of family and friends.

The following day, the bride, garbed in her "going away" dress, which she had sewn herself, took her wedding dress (which she not only sewed, but designed herself) and donated it to the priests to use to line their vestments.

Then this young couple, we'll call them John and Mary, boarded a boat which 'set sail' across the Atlantic. The boat docked in Montréal, Québec (yes, in Canada) a week later, and from there, the couple travelled on to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they would make their home.

The couple raised three children, moving a few times in the early years.  A year in Vancouver, BC, a year in Ireland, as well as several different apartments and townhouses in Winnipeg. They eventually bought a home in River Heights the year of their tenth wedding anniversary.

I am speaking, of course, of my parents. My brothers and I owe everything to them, in particular, that precious gift called "life".

We absolutely inherited our mutual love of books and reading, as well as our appreciation for music (not to mention a certain amount of musical talent) from them. In addition to that, we each have a penchant for films ... Not necessarily the style of music, or the genre of films, although we do appreciate similar things to one another (and, I suspect, our Dad).

This was made most evident to me during my time in Montréal this summer, when I was visiting my brother, my lovely sister in law, and my two perfectly adorable nephews. My other brother travelled with me, and we spent many hours watching films and TV series that one could just as easily have found in my own collection here.

Most poignant was looking at my brother's bookshelves, and realising we had eleventy-billion books between us, and at least a third of them were books I had on my shelves at home.

I am also, for the record, pleased to report that my nephews are receiving a proper education on the eradication of the Undead;

"What is it I always tell you about killing zombies, A? If you're going to shoot them, you need to shoot them in the head!"

It's  very important that children learn these important details, after all ;-)

I am reminded of a meme I have seen floating around the Internet: "Each of us is weird in our own way. Love is when you find someone else whose weirdness compliments your own, and you choose to share your life with them."

So true.

All because two people fell in love ...

Happy 49th Wedding Anniversary, Mum and Dad, wherever you may find yourselves now. I love you.

Guilty Pleasures

If you'll pardon my improper use of the word, I love films. My tastes tend toword the quirky or ecclectic, but either way, I enjoy going to, renting & owning films.

Yep, in our house, we love watching films almost as much as we love books ... it appears to be a genetic flaw ;-).

Of course, this doesn't *just* fly in the face of my consume-less mentality, it flies right up and smacks it, HARD. I guess we all have our flaws ...

But even so, watching something on DVD is definitely a frequent pass-time for our family. It can be challenging to find a film the whole family can watch, given the diversity of ages in our household- our eldest will be 20 this year, and our youngest will be 10.

Perennial family favourites include Fantasy films such as "The Princess Bride", "Stardust" and any of the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter films. I guess that pretty much classifies us as dorks, but hey.

The hidden perk to this seemingly dis-connected way of spending time together is that the kids will cuddle up on the couch with us while we watch the "film du soir"- a rare treat with the teenagers in our home, who are typically reluctant to be too affectionate anywhere remotely public. I'll take it ;-)

What are some of your favourite films?